Topic: BTC storage self custody electrum to Trezor? (Read 112 times)

• Trezor

The Trezor password manager software years ago was buggy and caused catastrophic loss...long story. The removal of that software did the BTC community a favour. FOSS like Trezor is still better than the proprietary cold wallets and I acknowledge today's Trezor product and support has matured.

• TailsOS

I've decided to use TailsOS on a USB as a cold wallet, cautiously on a private air gapped computer for occasional use. Yes, the commerical cold wallets are more secure, however I intend on rarely using the cold wallet with majority BTC funds. Once trust and better use and understanding is developed, spending money on an expensive commerical cold wallet may become an option.
I think for frequent use like when travelling and needing to top up the hot wallet, a 2nd TailsOS on a USB as a cold wallet with fewer BTC may be practical and secure.

• Electrum vs Sparrow

BTC only is fine, but Electrum according to research cannot move the mnemonic/seed phrase and passphrase to other BIP39 wallets (in the event of Electrum being compromised).
The hassle of creating 2 new mnemonic/seed phrases on 2 stainless steel hex keys, makes it worth finding a wallet where mnemonic/seed phrases can be recovered on any BIP39 wallet.
Therefore, I will use Sparrow on TailsOS.
Coinomi cold wallet is considered for using non BTC, like PoW Doge or PoS Monero, but I don't see any need for private transactions at the moment.

The plan is to transfer BTC from the cold wallet to a hot wallet like Breez/Blue/Phoenix (self custody, FOSS but missing reproducibility like Mycelium) with LN capability for daily transactions.

• Mnemonic/seed phrase storage SSSS confused for multisig

I was confusing multisig for a way of protecting the 2 stainless steel hexkeys mnemonic/seed phrases, however realised multisig is for transactions like 2 of 3. SSSS is for "splitting" mnemonic/seed phrases, however this is not recommended and I prefer to follow cyber security best practices.
That being said, multisig can be used as a form of SSSS, as long as the public keys are never lost. Storing public keys in multiple locations on the cloud should ensure the multisig public keys are never lost. Therefore, multisig can be used as a form of SSSS for mnemonic/seed phrase 2 of 3 storage, if choosing to not follow best practice of 2 stainless steel hex keys store in 2 locations (preferably covered with tamper proof stickers over a ripped piece of signed and dated paper (photo stored on cloud to view any tampering)).

• Side note: passphrase inheritance

Store passphrase on a cloud password manager, with emergency access to trusted people, which you can reject in x amount of time, if receiving access requests
or a timelock (haven't found any free services for this)

This passphrase inheritance seems to progress digitising confidential documents, which legacy legal practices charge an arm and a leg to store paper in a fire proof safe.

I think that you're just having some exploration problems with Trezor and that's why you think it's buggy. Overall, the reviews of Trezor are good and it's no doubt better than its competitor mainly Ledger which is no longer the best option for the most of us.

You can actually use Electrum as your main wallet if you want to if you dislike using Trezor. If you have some spare device in there or laptop, install it and then after sending your funds to your electrum wallet, disconnect it as if it's your actual hardware wallet.

Why not use Electrum alone instead of using other hardware wallets?

Having cold storage on an extra hard drive or USB flash drive with Tails OS if you know how to do airgap or offline transactions it works just the same as Trezor.
The only problem is Electrum only supports Bitcoin but if you are planning only to hold BTC on a Cold storage wallet then try Electrum wallet alone in cold storage.

Its a good idea for you to make decision on using a self custody wallet which will give you access to the wallet and control the use, but what seems to be strange here to me is the fact that you're having difficult time with the use of trezor hardware wallet of which is rare from other users.


The use of electrum wallet is never a bad option or decision to take, its one of the wallet i know you can proudly use for such purpose.


You could have asked all together, since here is a beginner and help section, answers will be provided to you from experienced members.

You don't need to waste money on coldcard, that is not even open source device anymore.

This is complete false statement.
I didn't find any bugs in Trezor Suite for years, and I never heard people complaining about big bugs with Trezor software.
But if you don't want to use Trezor Suite you can always connect your Trezor device with Electrum or Sparrow wallet when you use it with Bitcoin.

I don't recommend newbies to play around with multisig, it adds more complexity and increases transaction fees.
Adding multiple passphrase would be enough if you keep them separately in safe place.

Yes trezor is compatible with Electrum https://trezor.io/learn/a/electrum-and-trezor

Make sure you have verify the PGP signature in order to prove authenticity of the wallet [GUIDE] How to Safely Download and Verify Electrum [Guide]

If you had a problem, those might be the reasons https://trezor.io/support/a/issues-with-electrum

Hello, I would like to move some BTC from a CEX (centralised exchange) to self custody.
I have a  cold/hardware wallet Trezor Model One, which has been nothing but problems.
I would prefer a cold/hardware wallet Cold Card, but someone mentioned I might be able to work the BTC via Electrum to the Trezor cold/hardware wallet?

The Trezor Suite is buggy and Trezor support is a -10.
Hoping the desktop Electrum hot/software wallet might be an option to move the BTC to the cold/hardware wallet?

I have a separate question about seed phrase storage using multisig, so I might make a new post.